Nov 19, 2012

Cambodia - Territorial disputes with China should unite Asean: Surin

Territorial rows with China should bring the 10 members of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) closer together than pull them
apart, Asean secretary general Surin Pitsuwan said yesterday.

The Asean chief acknowledged the
urgency of a united Asean stand in resolving the bloc’s disputes with China
over the West Philippine Sea, or South China Sea, as tensions “are becoming
closer to home”.

“The situation is going to push
the Asean to move in one direction together, as the challenges are becoming
much closer to home, affecting confidence, having some implications on foreign
investment, concern about safety, and free access to the sea,” Surin told
reporters.

The 21st Asean Summit and related
Summits hosted by the Cambodian government opened formally on Sunday morning
with President Benigno Aquino III in attendance in spite of a flu. He arrived
at 8:40am Saturday on a Philippine Airlines flight.

The government said it allocated
11 million pesos (US$266,600) for the presidential trip to the November 18 to
20 summit. US President Barack Obama and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao are among
the world leaders expected to descend on the Cambodian capital for the Asean
summit and its related meetings.

According to Surin, it is clear
that the world is paying much more attention than before to Asean. “This region
is becoming more important than ever before, more critical to the word than
five years ago or 10 years ago,” he said.

“It’s putting a sense of urgency
on the Asean that we should move in the same direction. The Asean will
coordinate, discuss, liaise with China, effectively moving forward into the
future,” Surin said in a press conference at Peace Palace here.

Asean members Vietnam, the
Philippines, Brunei and Malaysia, along with Taiwan, have overlapping claims on
parts of the West Philippine Sea, while China claims virtually the whole body of
water as its own, often sparking maritime tensions.

The West Philippine Sea is
believed to hold vast deposits of oil and gas and is home to sea lanes through
which half of the global trade passes.

In April, a standoff that lasted
months occurred between Chinese and Filipino forces over the disputed
Scarbourough shoal off Zambales island in the Philippines.

Surin said the Asean foreign
ministers who attended the Asean Foreign Ministers Meeting on Saturday,
“expressed hope that we’ll get on with the work and we’ll have reciprocal
enthusiasm from China to move forward,” especially in crafting a code of
conduct (COC) for the negotiations.

“We’ve seen some hiccups along
the way but both sides, all sides, committed to communicate the message to the
global community that things are under control, and we’ll be able to work on
the COC,” he said.

Surin said the new code of
conduct would constitute “a collection of norms that are being used and being
followed in other parts of world, as far as the open sea, the navigation, the
security, safety, behaviours, the conduct of ships and vehicles going to any
area in the open sea.”

“We expect them to be sanctified,
to be binding, to be ratified, at the end of the process, whenever that is. We
wold like to see the momentum going on forward on that issue,” he said.

At the meeting, Indonesia
proposed the creation of a hot line for Asean on all emergency situations
involving the West Philippine Sea.

“In the absence of COC, which is
still in progress, in discussion, to avoid miscalculation, misleading of each
other anybody in the high seas, Indonesia has come up with the idea to
establish a communication channel” among the Asean members, Surin said.

“Call it a red line, give it a
sense of urgency that if anything is developing, we all will be informed and we
all will be activated into action, trying to consult, coordinate, contain any
possible spillover of any accident, misunderstanding, miscalculation,” he said.

Surin said Indonesia’s proposal
was pragmatic and practical, and would be helpful in managing any conflict
situation in the high seas.

But the Asean leader said
discussions by the foreign ministers did not make any specific reference to any
issue beyond a general discussion on “how we’re going to manage the expectations,
concerns, anxiety of the international community.”

DJ Yap

Philippine Daily Inquirer

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